Remember Hopping for your life?
by MissLisaJade
Summary: The idea fot this short story came to me whilst watching the Doctor Who Children in Need Special when the newly regenerated 10th Doctor says about him and Rose hopping for their lives. Takes place just after The Doctor Dances with Rose, Jack and no. 9


I don't own Doctor Who (that would be the BBC...) and am not Russell T. Davis. I'm just a student... please don't sue me as I have nothing of value anyway...

Special thanks to Paul: Paulio999/Paulio1983 for being my "walking talking dictionary of Doctor Who" and my Beta Reader… not to mention a good friend.

Please R&R and most of all... Enjoy!

"...Running running running and that one time we had to hop. Do you remember? Hopping for our lives. Yeh? All that hopping? Remember hopping for your life? Yeh? Hop. With the... No?" Quote The Doctor in the Children In Need Special.

* * *

As the Glen Miller piece "In The Mood" ended The Doctor tipped Rose upside down and she gave a surprised, giggly cry. Captain Jack looked on and subtly smiled to himself as the last note blasted out. Rose fell into The Doctors arms still giggling. She stayed there for a few moments, her face against his chest and then turned her head to look up at him, smiling flirtatiously. The Doctor looked into her eyes and they felt themselves drawn into each other. The Doctor moved his lips towards Rose's but as their lips were inches away from each other's Jack gave a distracting cough.

"Let me show you around." The Doctor pranced off, still half dancing. Rose looked a little flustered but soon recovered and Rose took Captain Jack by the hand and the two of them followed The Doctor. The Doctor led them into one room with some outfits from various time periods hanging from organically shaped beams, "Wardrobe," he rapidly led them into another room, "kitchen… ish" he said indicating towards a small stasis device, a kettle and a tatty table and chair. He left another room closed but gestured towards it "Toilet… or Bathroom as you yanks like to call it."

"And this," Rose cut in prancing towards the control panel, "Is the bridge!"

The Doctor gave Rose an exasperated look and shook his head, "Control Room Rose, Control Room!" However his expression soon changed to a boyish grin.

He walked over and joined Rose by the control panel while Captain Jack took in his surroundings, nodding approvingly, "Not a bad ship…"

"Not bad?" The Doctor exclaimed, "The TARDIS is the best ship in the Universe!"

"TARDIS?" Asked Jack.

"T.A.R.D.I.S; Time And Relative Dimensions In Space." Rose explained.

"That explains the 'bigger inside' thing," Captain Jack said carefully examining the control panel, "I mean we have time travel in the 51st century but nothing like this. It's amazing! It's not from Earth but not like any Alien technology I've seen before. It's almost like the legends I was told when I was a kid. About Time Lords…"

Jack caught The Doctor grinning and raising his eyebrows, arms crossed, trying to look innocent.

Jack looked amazed "You're a Time Lord? But that was just a legend!"

"Yeh, but then again so is time travel and space travel past the Earth's solar system in the 21st century where Rose is from, and here we are; the three of us hurtling through time and space in what looks like a 1950's Police Box."

Jack began examining the control panel silently.

"Right!" The Doctor suddenly cried making Rose and Captain Jack jump, "I'm in a great mood! I've just saved a load of people and I want to go visit a nice planet!" He moved over to the screen on the TARDIS control panel and scanned through some data on planets silently, Rose and Captain Jack peering over his shoulder. "Fantastic!" he exclaimed, "The planet of Glahiseh, inhabited by the Glahisehans. Nice race! Make the best roast in the whole of the universe!"

Captain Jack nodded, "Yeh, I know them. They're the ones with the creepy eyes and pale skin, not that different a race from humans."

"Yup." The Doctor said as he began turning wheels, pushing buttons and pulling levers, imputing the data into the TARDIS. The ship gave a slight jolt and then headed off through time and space towards Glahiseh.

"Doctor," Rose said thoughtfully, "Why do so many races in the universe look like humans? I mean you look like us …"

"Don't flatter yourselves." The Doctor interrupted "This shape of body is common place that's all. You're just one of thousands of races throughout the Universe that just happened to evolve in a similar way. I mean it makes sense doesn't it? There are many races that have survived in that shape, got to that point in evolution and stayed around that kind of look because it's successful; as humans have and my people. And if I may say so, we've looked like this for a damn site longer than you have. We were exploring time and space before humans had even lost their gills!"

Rose looked a little indignant but kept quiet. "Rose, better go change your shirt, that one's caused us enough trouble." Rose looked down at her union jack tee shirt and rushed off to the TARDIS's wardrobe to change in to one of the tee shirts she had packed in the bag she had brought on board. "And how about we loose the military look Jack." Captain Jack rushed after Rose but the Doctor grabbed him by the shoulder, "Wait until Rose has finished changing, Jack" The Doctor added warningly.

The TARDIS materialised in a beautiful city on the steps of a palace with a large fountain in front of it. The streets were busy and market stalls were dotted around the entire city. Rose opened the door of the TARDIS followed by The Doctor and then Captain Jack.

The Doctor looked around and then smiled "Hasn't changed much since I was last here."

Rose took off the denim jacket she was wearing revealing a red halter neck top underneath and then turned to The Doctor, "Doctor it's boiling! Aren't you hot?"

The Doctor shrugged in reply.

"Well I know I'm hot." said Captain Jack. The Doctor and Rose rolled their eyes.

There was a sound of music from behind them and the three time travellers turned to see the palace behind them and a man wearing an exotic-looking robe, walking down the steps followed by some slightly less ostentatiously clad servants. All had milky white skin and eyes that seemed to have no iris at all, only white cornea and a small, black pupil. The Doctor folded his arms and watched the man descend the steps. Rose turned her attention to taking in the city, in particular the fountain which was made out of beautiful and enchanting statues of angels pouring water out of vases.

"The good Doctor!" The man in the extravagant clothes proclaimed when he finally saw The Doctor, "I thought you had gone off on your time travels!"

"I had your highness," The Doctor replied, bowing politely yet informally, "but I thought I would come back, bring some friends and take you up on the hospitality you offered last time I was here."

"Doctor, after what you did to help save my people, we are forever indebted to you. You are welcome in my court any time you wish." He turned to one of his servants, "Averis, please tell the chef to prepare a feast and arrange some entertainment for tonight for our guests; The Doctor and his companions." The Servant bowed in response and headed back up the steps and into the palace.

The Doctor introduced his companions, "King Meyite, this is Captain Jack Harkness."

Jack shook the Kings hand and bowed, "A pleasure to meet you your majesty."

"And this is Rose Tyler." The Doctor said. Rose turned her attention away from the fountain and held out her hand to shake the King's but the King just stared at her, horrified and angrily spluttered something unintelligible.

Rose looked worried and then looked to The Doctor quizzically, not knowing what on earth she could have done. "What's wrong? It isn't what I'm wearing again is it? I swear if my clothes become an issue again…"

"She's a Dark Eye!" King Meyite finally managed to say "Guards! Guards!"

Two burly guards emerged from the doors of the palace. They took Rose roughly by the arms. Rose immediately began struggling against them, "Hey! Get your hands off me!" she exclaimed.

"What are you doing? Let her go!" The Doctor demanded as Jack began trying to pull the guards off Rose.

"Her kind are not allowed here, she's a threat!" The King explained. "Take her to the caves and put her with the rest of them."

The Guards began marching Rose away, "Doctor help me!" she cried.

The Doctor looked thrown for a moment before crying out after her, "Rose! I'll find you, I'll come get you, just wait for me!"

The Guards marched Rose through the city, never replying to Roses attempts to reason with them. They soon came to the outskirts where a desert stretched out to beyond the horizon and the heat was even more intense than within the city. The Guards finally stopped and stood Rose in front of a large cliff face with a heavy metal door on it. One guard removed a key from a pocket within his jacket and unlocked the door.

Rose peered in to see a dark, damp cave "It's dark in here isn't it? Aren't there any lights?"

Again the guards didn't reply and pushed Rose into the cave. Before Rose could do anything they pushed the door closed and locked it.

It was pitch black within the cave and Rose began to panic. She pushed the door and began screaming, "Let me out! Let me out!" she beat her fists against the metal but it was no use, the door was shut and locked and there wasn't even a handle on the inside. Defeated, Rose slumped down against the door and tried to think of a way out and adjust her eyes to the lack of light.

Meanwhile Captain Jack and The Doctor were being entertained by a dance troop. Jack was enjoying the sight of the scantily clad women and topless men dancing but The Doctor was ignoring both the grand roast dinner and the dancers. He was deep in thought trying to come up with a plan to save Rose.

The Doctor turned to King Meyite, "'Dark Eye', you called her a 'Dark Eye'. What's a 'Dark Eye'?"

"What?" the King said. He was clearly enjoying the meal and entertainment and was not giving Rose a thought. "Oh. Dark Eyes are barbarians, savages and are not to be trusted. Their eyes have dark rims around their pupil. They are a Glahisehan sub-species. They have to live in the caves outside the city as they are too dangerous." He added dismissively.

The Doctor furrowed his brow in thought. He looked into the King's milky coloured eyes and then turned and looked at Jack. Jack's eyes were a light blue colour. The Doctor struggled to remember his current eye colour but eventually remembered that he had blue eyes too. So what colour were Rose's eyes? He thought back and seemed to remember that they were hazel. The King had called her a 'Dark Eye' so he concluded she must have dark brown eyes.

"Jack," The Doctor whispered to Jack, elbowing him in the ribs and trying to distract his attention from the dancers. "We have to try and find out where Rose is. We have to sneak out of here so that the King won't notice and get offended. We need to find these caves… Jack!" Jacks attention had wondered again and the Doctor had to raise his voice in order to make him concentrate.

"OK OK!" Jack said, "Well why don't we tell the King we will go and sleep in the TARDIS and go and find Rose then."

The Doctor nodded.

Rose had been sitting in the dark for what seemed like hours when finally some light appeared at the end of the tunnel. She squinted into the light and got to her feet, slowly walking towards it. She turned a corner and heard the sound of singing and talking. Following the sound, she eventually came to where the cave opened out. A staircase was carved out of the rock below her which led into a huge chamber from which the light and singing had come from. Leaning forward she could see into the chamber. There were hundreds of Glahisehans dressed in rags. Some were dancing and singing while others were eating from plates of what looked like cooked large insects and small rodents. In the centre of the cave was a large fire which was what was producing the light.

She slowly descended the staircase. A few of the Glahisehans watched her with timid fascination and Rose found herself feeling very self conscious. She watched the dancing for a moment, her arms crossed, trying not to look at the many pairs of eyes on her. Despite not wanting to look these Glahisehans in the eyes, she had noticed that it was almost impossible to distinguish their pupils from their iris. It almost looked as though they all had very large pupils and no iris at all.

After a few moments of watching the dancing Rose felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned to see a male Glahisehan standing behind her. He smiled at her.

"Hello," he said, "I hope you don't mind me asking but who are you? And what are you doing here?"

Rose felt a little intimidated but had learned from The Doctor that just because an Alien looked different, didn't mean that they necessarily meant any harm. She tried to look friendly and introduced herself "I'm Rose. I just landed on the surface with my companions and some guards locked me in this cave. I hope I'm not intruding but I heard your singing and saw your light. I had been sitting in the dark on my own for ages."

The male Glahisehan looked wide eyed, "You've seen the surface!" he exclaimed. "She's seen the surface!" he cried gleefully out to the other Glahisehans. Immediately the singing stopped and all the people began gathering around her, all asking her so many questions all at once that she couldn't begin to answer any of them.

"What's it like?" one man asked.

"Well umm…" Rose began. But how did she begin to explain what it's like living on the surface of a planet to a people who had never seen the surface? "Have none of you ever gone to the surface?" She asked.

Many of the Glahisehans shook their heads and there was a murmuring that indicated that all of them had not.

"We are forbidden to go to the surface." One woman said. "Us Dark Eyes were banished by the Light Eyes generations ago and have not been allowed back to the surface since."

"It was so long ago that it's been lost in history." Another woman said. "We don't even know what we were banished for. And I'm guessing that the Light Eye's don't know either."

The Doctor looked out of the Window and by the lack of people on the streets of Glahiseh and the darkness of the sky, The Doctor figured that it was very early morning. The King had become very drunk and was talking to some of the dancers and Jack. Two very attractive female dancers sat on The King's lap and The King had his arms around their waists. Jack was also happily inebriated and had a male and female dancer on his lap. The six of them were happily drinking, talking and laughing but The Doctor sat apart from them, silently worrying about Rose.

The Doctor would have preferred if Jack had been sober for the rescue, but had no doubt that he was still sentient enough to carry out the plan.

The Doctor approached The King who was being fed fruit by one of the dancers on his lap.

"Your highness, I think myself and Captain Jack will retire for this evening." The Doctor said.

The King smiled drunkenly, "I will have my servants prepare your chambers."

"No need" The Doctor said, "We can stay in my ship."

The King shrugged, "If your sure Doctor."

The Doctor bowed and went to go and get Jack, "Jack we're going." Jack reluctantly said goodbye to some of the dancers and The King. The Doctor and Captain Jack left the palace and descended the steps, standing in the courtyard between the TARDIS and the fountain.

"Jack can you scan for human life forms?" The Doctor asked, "Rose should be the only human on the planet other than yourself."

Jack punched data into his watch-computer and it immediately picked up Rose. "This way." Jack said and The Doctor followed him.

By the time the sun was rising Jack and the Doctor were out of the city and Jack saw that his sensor said that Rose was very nearby. "We should be able to see her, Doctor."

The Doctor looked around and caught sight of the metal door in the cliff. He called Jack and walked towards it withdrawing his sonic screwdriver from the pocket of his leather jacket. He unlocked the door and pushed it open and went inside, followed closely by Jack.

Leaving the door open, there was enough light to see by until they got to the chamber. Here the light was more limited but as The Doctor's eyes adjusted to the little light that the embers of the fire provided he caught sight of Rose lying asleep on the floor, surrounded by hundreds of Glahisehans. The Doctor made his way towards her and Jack followed.

"Rose," The Doctor shook Rose by the shoulder, "Rose, Rose wake up."

Rose groaned groggily and slowly opened her eyes. She smiled when she saw The Doctors face. "Hello Doctor. You came to get me."

The Doctor smiled back at Rose, "'Course! Said I would didn't I?" The Doctor looked at all the Glahisehans around her. "Guess these lot are the Dark Eyes are they?"

Rose nodded

"An Apartheid over eye colour. Almost as stupid as you humans and your Apartheid over skin colour."

Rose got to her feet. Some of the Glahisehans had begun to wake up now due to the amount of noise that Jack, Rose and The Doctor were making. The Doctor shook his head, "This isn't right. All these people forced to live underground. They have so little and the Light Eyes have so much."

"They were banished generations ago." Rose added, "They don't even remember what they did to be banished."

The Doctor surveyed the scene, thinking. "I'm going to do something about it." He said suddenly and began running towards the wall. He found an outcrop of rock that would hold him higher up and stood on it. "Dark Eyes!" he cried attracting their attention, "You shouldn't have to live like this. This isn't fair! The door to the caves is open, go and live on the surface if you wish. Go and live in harmony with the Light Eyes."

The Dark Eyed Glahisehans gave mixed reactions. some looked confused and didn't move, some immediately ran from the chamber, up the stairs making for the door to the outside.

The Doctor jumped down from the outcrop looking very pleased with himself. "Come on you two!" he said happily and followed some of the Glahisehans out of the door in the cliff and to the surface. Many of the Dark Eyed Glahisehans were rubbing their eyes in the harsh, morning sunlight and staring around at the planets surface that they had never seen before. "Time to leave this lot to sort things out with the King."

"Not so fast!" called a voice from behind. Rose, Jack and The Doctor turned to see a group of Light Eyed Glahisehan guards. "Doctor, I am arresting you and your companions for treason."

"I don't think so. Run!" The Doctor shouted and the three time travellers ran past the guards and towards the city. The Guards ran after them drawing cylinders from their belts and pressing a button to extend the cylinder into a staff. The end of the staff began glowing with blue energy as the Guards pursued Rose, Jack and The Doctor.

The Time travellers managed to get a few streets away from the palace and the fountain where the TARDIS was parked before the Guards caught up with them. One guard was just behind them when he raised the staff and pressed another button on it. A blue ball of energy was hurtling towards Rose but The Doctor caught sight of it.

"Watch out Rose!" The Doctor cried. Rose leapt out of the way of the energy ball but the ball hit her foot. Rose let out a yelp and fell to the floor. "Rose!" The Doctor called after her and him and Jack stopped to help Rose. "Rose are you ok?"

"Fine Doctor." She said "My foots just gone numb, that's all. I'm in no pain."

"Stun technology," The Doctor said nodding "Come on Rose, you'll have to hop for it!"

Jack and The Doctor helped Rose to her feet and assisted Rose in hopping as fast as she could towards where the TARDIS was parked.

They reached the fountain and were on the other side of it from the TARDIS when a large group of guards emerged from the palace.

"What now?" Asked Jack as he, The Doctor and Rose hid behind one edge of the fountain.

The Doctor suddenly gave an angry cry. A ball of energy fired from the pursuing guards had hit his thigh. He fell to the floor but immediately got to one of his feet. "Rose!" he cried just as Rose also fell to the floor. The back of her head had been hit with an energy ball.

"Good thing that didn't hit any higher." Jack commented looking at The Doctor's leg.

"Not the time Jack!" The Doctor said angrily. He picked up Rose and balanced on one leg with some difficulty.

Jack spoke again. "Doctor, you get Rose back in the TARDIS and I'll draw their fire." And with that, Jack began running for the Palace trying to draw the fire away from Rose and the Doctor.

It took a long time for the Doctor to carry Rose to the TARDIS due to his numbed leg but once he reached the ship he struggled to open the door and took Rose inside, laying her on a tatty old sofa by the control panel.

The Doctor then hopped over to the control panel and began readying the TARDIS for take off. Moments later Jack stumbled through the door. As soon as he was safely inside The Doctor flicked a switch. The TARDIS engines screeched and the TARDIS was hurtled through time and space.

The Doctor tended to Rose with Jack's help. The sensations in The Doctors leg had confirmed his suspicions that the energy had been stun technology. Despite still wanting to check Rose's vital signs, in case of complications, he knew the technology was designed to take prisoners, not to kill. It would just knock a person out for a while if the energy hit the main neural system.

Soon The Doctor felt a tingling, warming sensation from his leg. A small amount of pain followed due to the dead leg being twisted whilst he had been hopping to the ship.

Rose gave a groan and opened her eyes. "Ugh, my head," she said holding her forehead. "Doctor what happened?" she asked.

Neither the Doctor nor Captain Jack answered her. "So where to now?" Asked Jack as the TARDIS hurtled through time and space.


End file.
